Hu
Back to results

Athenian funerary monument in the shape of a lekythos

Date ca. 370 B.C.
Object type sculpture
Medium, technique carved, marble (Pentelic)
Dimensions

height: 51 cm, width: 29.8 cm, depth: 31.5 cm

Inventory number 4745
Collection Classical Antiquities
On view Museum of Fine Arts, Basement Floor, Classical Antiquity, Eros – Dionysos – Thanatos

The tombstone evokes the shape of a lekythos, the perfume bottle customary in Athenian funerary cult. The seated man and the woman before him hold hands, indicating their togetherness even after death.
This was not the first phase of carving the relief: details show that the original scene depicted a seated woman and a handmaid in front of her. The stele was thus recarved and reused already in antiquity.
There are some letters above the head of the woman: fragments of the name of the deceased. We do not know which figure it originally belonged to.

Marble analyses have shown that the funerary vase was made of Pentelic marble.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

Recommended exhibitions